AT&T has dribbled out a bit more information about its support for Apple's new iPhone 3.0 software. The good news is that MMS support will be free. The bad news is that Big Phone hasn't made any changes in their controversial iPhone 3G S early-upgrade pricing.
In a new FAQ released by the telecom giant, news comes that MMS …

Big Phone?

No it's weird...

No it's weird... the US carriers *all* do MMS (technically, Sprint has you get your PIX via some browser thing; the rest all do regular straight-to-the-phone MMS.) Why AT&T is not supporting MMS, *on IPhone only*, is a mystery to me and everyone else as well.

@AC re: AT&T MMS "upgrades"

MMS messages are broadcast into the network via an MMS gateway - there are many vendors on the market, and they all work slightly differently. My _guess_ is that the iPhone requires the use of a specific gateway, and AT&T have a different one. And the project to procure and deploy the new gateway just for iPhone is running behind schedule, probably because Procurement at AT&T decided to haggle with the vendor over pricing for a few months, trying to squeeze a few pennies out of the hardware cost - and probably saved $5000 or so at the cost of delaying the entire project for months and pissing off their most important consumer customers. Ummm, not that this EVER happens at telcos, never...lol.

Alternately, the iPhone could have MMS designed for one gateway, and need to be redeveloped slightly to accomodate whatever AT&T has in place. Same net effect, except Procurement isn't to blame, but the developers are.

And NO I don't work for AT&T, and nor do I know this is the case...but my experience at mobile telcos says these are very likely scenarios...

£6 per megabyte!!!?

MMS Rumour

@AC there is a rumour that AT&T have placed a block on all iPhone accounts to disable MMS as it was being used with beta builds when it shouldn't have been. This block needs to be manually removed from every account individually - hence the time.

There is some truth in it from what I can see - using an "unofficial" upgrade to OS 3.0 I'm able to send/receive MMS whilst my brother's iPhone still won't so there is a network level block available. O2 require you to text a number to get the block removed (it won't work until the 17th)

@Jimbo 7

Seriously mate, get a clue - you're not particularly bright, are you?. Where does it say that they'll charge for incoming and outgoing messages? Did I miss it? As for the iPhone being crap. YAWN. Change the record mate - you're boring.

David, that £6 charge is for data used outside of the EU. Orange; £6.46 per MB. Vodafone; £4.99 per MB. Three; £6 per MB. T-Mobile; £7.50 per MB. So it would appear that £6/MB is about average for *international data roaming*.

Why are we paying twice?

OK So I have a monthly plan from O2 which includes unlimited (subject to fair use policy) data and because I happen to want to use my Laptop linked to my phone I also have to pay per megabyte on top of the component of my not inconsiderable monthly fee allocated to pay for the data service.

I can understand possibly if they wanted to charge an incrememental fee to compensate for the possibly higher volume of data and the benefit of not having a separate data only account for my laptop. But these per megabyte rates are higher than taking a data only account.

How is that a good deal for the consumer? What has OFCOM got to say about charging twice?

Incoming/outgoing @Mac Phreak

Sorry, but you are not the bright one in this case friend. In the US, all the carriers charge for incoming AND outgoing text. Our legislators are deep in the telcos pockets obviously.

Here's another interesting note: I called AT&T to urge them not to gouge us on tethering when the offer it and the customer service drone told me that it's APPLE that is not allowing tethering according to AT&T management!! AT&T is such a liar!

to @Mac Phreak

"Where does it say that they'll charge for incoming and outgoing messages? Did I miss it? "

obviously mate you missed it. ATT in USA charges for text messages iPhone users. I have a family plan where one of the phones is iPhone, I pay $5 for 200 sms messages a month (this is for both incoming and outgoing). Below is a copy-paste from my plan. As you can see MMS is not allowed ("opt out") in current firmware.

@David Wood

Such pricing isn't all that uncommon really. Happens over here in NL too, data bundles are for the elite with the cash dropping out of their pockets. Sole reason I refuse to pay for having an operator tack on extra 'plans' with high fees for something I never use anyway. Though we don't pay for incoming calls and texts. Yet.

@Richard 51

What's the alternative? Buy a 3g dongle for your laptop. Does that count as paying twice too?

With the iPhone tethering, you're paying roughly the same... plus you may have to pay for the actual dongle itself.

I'm not saying it's a good deal... but, if the iPhone tethering were free/very cheap, the market for 3g data cards would be seriously impacted.

I'll still be getting it. It's more convenient than carrying a seperate dongle, plus it means I can make use of TomTom's data services again. I feel a bit stiffed, but I can see why it ain't free as well.